[HN Gopher] Hacker News Predictions
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Hacker News Predictions
        
       Author : mercurybee
       Score  : 184 points
       Date   : 2022-08-14 16:50 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hnpredictions.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hnpredictions.github.io)
        
       | kqr wrote:
       | My pet peeve: predictions not associated with probabilities or
       | odds.
       | 
       | It's impossible to verify or score accuracy without that. Nobody
       | predicts anything at 100 % certainty (otherwise it wouldn't be a
       | prediction, it would just be stating inevitable facts), so
       | there's always an implicit level of confidence.
       | 
       | It's just that when people don't say what it is, their
       | predictions become meaningless to anyone but themselves.
       | 
       | A prediction without a probability is also not open to critique,
       | because the way we settle differences in beliefs about
       | uncertainties is through betting against each other. But a bet
       | requires odds to price it with.
        
         | stonewareslord wrote:
         | What do you mean? Adding odds defeats the purpose of the
         | prediction since you can't confirm it to be true or not.
         | 
         | If I predict with 99.99% odds something will happen and it
         | doesn't, my prediction could still have been correct as that
         | fits in the remaining .01%. Whereas if I predict something will
         | or won't happen after some time, you can confirm if it did or
         | didn't happen after that time.
        
           | kqr wrote:
           | All predictions come with uncertainty. That's what makes them
           | predictions.
           | 
           | Even if someone says "there will be an ice cream shortage in
           | France in the summer of 2025" they don't mean they are 100 %
           | certain of it. They mean they find it somewhat likely -- but
           | exactly how likely? That's what they have to tell us, because
           | we don't know.
           | 
           | For an individual prediction, you can never tell whether it's
           | true or not, because individual predictions always come with
           | some level of uncertainty.
           | 
           | What you can do, if you know at what confidence level it was
           | made, is
           | 
           | - Score individual predictions. One made at 99.9 % certainty
           | that doesn't come true gets a heavy negative score, while if
           | it would have been made at 60 % it gets penalised much less.
           | 
           | - Verify the accuracy of a collection of predictions. If I
           | predict five things at confidence levels of 0.8 0.7 0.9 0.5
           | 0.5 then I should get roughly 3--4 of them right. If I don't,
           | my predictions aren't very accurate.
        
         | melony wrote:
         | We can go all bayesian about predictions but at the end of the
         | day dropbox didn't build itself. At some point we need to act
         | on it.
        
           | kqr wrote:
           | Right and it's specifically for action that we need to know
           | the odds. To pick one set of actions in advance of an
           | uncertain event we need to know three things:
           | 
           | - The cost in case the event turns out bad,
           | 
           | - The upside in case the event turns out good, and
           | 
           | - The probability that the event turns out good.
           | 
           | We can summarise the two first ones as "the payoff function
           | of the event" and simplify the situation into requiring
           | knowledge about the payoff and the probability.
           | 
           | But without the probability we cannot take informed action.
           | 
           | (Unless the payoff is structured such that the probability
           | doesn't matter -- but then it's also not much of a difficult
           | decision.)
        
         | c3534l wrote:
         | Predictions and probabilites seem unrelated, except in
         | mathematical models which attempt to make "predictions" through
         | probabalistic models. Perhaps you've spent so much time reading
         | about machine learning that you've gotten the concepts
         | confused. I would go so far as to say that a prediction that
         | comes with a probability is not a true prediction, but an
         | estimate masquarading as one.
        
           | kqr wrote:
           | Quite the opposite! A prediction is an estimation of the most
           | likely outcome in a binary event.
           | 
           | I mean, I get that just saying the above seems to confirm
           | your "too much machine learning" hypothesis, but I guarantee
           | you that's not the case. At my own peril, I'm too old
           | fashioned to have read much about machine learning.
           | 
           | What I can say is that when making strategic and tactical
           | decisions that affect a lot of people, I have found it
           | incredible to know things like "I am 85 % sure we will not
           | make the next release in time" (an actionable prediction)
           | compared to "there's no way we'll make the next release in
           | time" (when in fact there's still a 15 % chance we will, if
           | we take proper action now.)
        
             | c3534l wrote:
             | It most definitely is not. Confidence and predictions are
             | orthogonal concepts outside of stats and ML. A gambler
             | makes predictions, but may have no confidence in winning. A
             | scientific model may produce predictions with no associatel
             | claims of probability or even validity. It is perfectly
             | grammatically and semantically correct to say that someone
             | made a prediction that they themselves do not believe to be
             | the most likely outcome.
        
               | kqr wrote:
               | Any gambler that makes a prediction without internally
               | associating it with a probability is one that's most
               | likely losing money. You simply cannot consistently make
               | positive-EV bets without considering the probabilities of
               | your predictions. (Heck, EV is the linear combination of
               | probability and payoff.)
               | 
               | A scientific model almost always includes a very specific
               | kind of probability: the p value. The best scientific
               | models are also validated externally and have the results
               | of that experiment reported -- as probabilities: false
               | positive and false negative rates are common concepts to
               | discuss that.
               | 
               | I completely agree that one can predict something that
               | one does not believe to be the most likely outcome. But
               | in order to even say that, you have to be implying that
               | there is at least a partial order from "least likely" to
               | "most likely" and that order is commonly referred to as
               | probability.
               | 
               | (Edit: oh, I see where you got the "most likely" from. By
               | convention, in a binary prediction, the prediction itself
               | is stated in terms of the most likely outcome, with a
               | confidence between 50 % and 100 %. It is of course
               | possible to state the other side of the event with a
               | confidence level < 50 % -- it's just not the way these
               | things are usually presented.)
        
               | c3534l wrote:
               | > Any gambler that makes a prediction without internally
               | associating it with a probability is one that's most
               | likely losing money.
               | 
               | The very fact that this idea is expressible proves that
               | you're combining two different ideas in your head. You're
               | seeing the utility in making accurate predictions then,
               | despite being perfectly capable of talking about
               | predictions which aren't estimates, pretending that
               | they're the same concept.
               | 
               | I of course don't need to appeal to your own confused
               | words, because we live in a world where dictionaries
               | exist.
        
               | kqr wrote:
               | Sure, I feel like that's what I've been trying to say all
               | along: you can make a prediction without saying at what
               | confidence level, but it doesn't mean anything to anyone
               | other than perhaps to yourself, because only you know how
               | strongly you believe in it.
        
       | naet wrote:
       | Fun idea. Needs a sort by time, and a link to the context.
       | 
       | "I predict this will turn into a debacle for Apple."
       | 
       | What will? I pushed the button about 10 times and only saw one
       | that was even partially understandable without context.
        
       | tgv wrote:
       | I predict Amazon's rank in the top500 is about to improve.
       | -rbanffy (2010)
       | 
       | That wasn't a bad one. It was at 100 in Fortune's 500 in 2010.
       | However, as people have said, the context determines the quality
       | of the prediction. If this was said in reply to "I'm going to buy
       | all my DVDs from Amazon from now on," it wasn't such an
       | interesting opinion.
       | 
       | BTW: p=1191
        
       | mgdlbp wrote:
       | All "I predict" comments in chronological order, filtered so the
       | very oldest from 2007 are visible:
       | https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22i%20predict%22&type=comment...
       | 
       | Also try, "in x years"
       | 
       | Nothing too remarkable. [This
       | thread](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68111) envisions the
       | rise of music streaming, but the prevailing attitude is that it'd
       | enable p2p sharing and piracy, not forestall it (also see
       | comments on the article itself).
        
       | faizshah wrote:
       | Small bug, it is attributing quoted replies to the quoting
       | comment instead of to the source comment:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2661020 and
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=1539
        
         | mkl wrote:
         | Another bug, it is attributing some quotes to either different
         | users or changed usernames:
         | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=3423 is attributed to
         | ReidZB, but ReidZB doesn't appear anywhere in the discussion
         | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955793) and it was
         | actually said by rwiggins.
         | 
         | It's a fun quote out of context: "I predict gravity will
         | disappear in five minutes for thirty seconds".
        
       | kdps wrote:
       | I predict people on hn will use the the expression "I predict"
       | much more often now.
        
       | vkdelta wrote:
       | I wish you linked original thread. It not obvious to see it on
       | website.
        
         | superchroma wrote:
         | Yeah, without context, a lot of these don't make sense.
        
         | valbaca wrote:
         | It's explained in the "what is this?" link at the bottom:
         | 
         | https://hnpredictions.github.io/wtf.html
         | 
         | SELECT * FROM bigquery-public-data.hacker_news.full WHERE text
         | LIKE "%I predict%" on the Hacker News BigQuery dataset, plus
         | some mild preparation.
        
           | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
           | I think the point is that they want a link to each comment in
           | its original context.
        
             | valbaca wrote:
             | ah, yeah, that seems like an easy feature to add.
        
               | PebblesRox wrote:
               | If you click the username, it links to the comment on HN.
        
         | drewtato wrote:
         | I predict that this feature will be added soon.
        
       | teaearlgraycold wrote:
       | > I predict Reddit will be the first challenger to finding web
       | content.
       | 
       | -kevando (2017)
       | 
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=1047
       | 
       | Winner winner chicken dinner
        
         | Macha wrote:
         | Even in 2017, this was more stating the status quo than really
         | predicting.
         | 
         | Already plenty of comments throughout 2017 of people searching
         | reddit for more "human" recommendations because of Google
         | getting overrun with corporate spam.
         | 
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1513209600&dateRange=custom&...
         | 
         | Arguably the difference between then and now is that
         | astroturfing Reddit has become more profitable and hence more
         | common as people adopt that mindset, so searching reddit is
         | less valuable now than in 2017.
        
       | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
       | Just a note about your sentence parsing. I got a "I predict
       | Python 2." entry, where the sentence was "I predict Python 2.7
       | will something something".
       | 
       | Your sentence regex should look for a period followed by
       | whitespace or end-of-input.
        
       | clairity wrote:
       | too bad this site (which encourages it) and most of the comments
       | so far are focused on (poor) singular predictions without taking
       | the next step and wondering whether the mean(s) of these
       | predictions are fairly accurate. i'd suspect that with enough
       | samples, the mean of any given prediction would be fairly
       | accurate[0], but instead, it's lot of shallow criticism.
       | 
       | for instance, i had been saying (since at least 5 years ago) that
       | full self-driving was at least 15 years away. looking at the
       | state of the tech, i was probably too optimistic, but i'd love to
       | know the mean prediction of the population to see how far offbase
       | i was.
       | 
       | [0]: this is the central thesis of the book _wisdom of crowds_ ,
       | and of the many prediction markets it spawned.
        
       | CodeWriter23 wrote:
       | I predict we will see a glut of attention-seeking posts on HN
       | starting with the words "I predict".
        
       | ZeroGravitas wrote:
       | My guess is searching for "my guess is" would find similar
       | predictions.
        
       | wolfgang42 wrote:
       | Relevant quote that I saved a while back:
       | 
       | > The tendency to prognosticate without any real evidence will
       | increase in the future. -- whatshisface (2019),
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19567417
        
       | armchairhacker wrote:
       | Feature requests:
       | 
       | - Filter by "before year", so I can see predictions from earlier
       | years which are more likely to be resolved. Most of the random
       | results I got are in the 2020s.
       | 
       | - Make the url contain a seed, so you can copy/paste the URL and
       | get the same prediction (EDIT: my bad, looks like there is
       | already a "share link" button)
        
       | darkerside wrote:
       | I like the idea of being able to vote on whether the position
       | turned out to be correct. Would be cool to see it as a histogram
       | over time, so you could see whether predictions started becoming
       | more correct.
       | 
       | Also, typical narcissistic me wants to see any predictions that I
       | might have made.
       | 
       | Very cool and fun project.
        
       | tekbog wrote:
       | "I predict smooth sailing from here on out." -lukasb (2017) [0]
       | 
       | haha
       | 
       | [0]https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=135
        
       | tedsanders wrote:
       | In 2010, Daniel B. Markham asked a question to the users of
       | HackerNews, "A New Decade. Any Predictions?":
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1025681
       | 
       | 189 comments were posted in the thread. Their predictions
       | included:
       | 
       | - Ubiquitous mobile internet integrated into even very trivial
       | consumer goods
       | 
       | - Ebooks defeating real books
       | 
       | - Rampant piracy
       | 
       | - Common electric cars
       | 
       | - Driverless cars
       | 
       | - China bubble will burst
       | 
       | - Google will go downhill
       | 
       | - Microsoft will become like IBM and have to sell off parts of
       | the business
       | 
       | - Smartphones & cloud computing will make PCs redundant for most
       | people
       | 
       | Of all these 9 predictions, I'd say first 8 were mostly false and
       | the 9th was correct in spirit but still iffy in fact - Statista
       | says that 3/4 of American adults own a computer.
       | 
       | In general, there seems to be a severe bias toward change. Either
       | people were very optimistic about the changes we'd see by 2020 or
       | they were quite pessimistic about the present trends & companies,
       | calling them bubbles or unsustainable. In both cases, a
       | prediction of "trends will stay the same" would have been more
       | accurate than a prediction of "things will change drastically
       | off-trend".
       | 
       | That said, it's a bit unfair to say that stasis/current trends
       | continue is a better prediction, as it has the advantage of
       | entropy. There is only one way for things to stay the same, but
       | many ways for them to change. So even if things are likely to
       | change, predicting stasis can still outperform any _specific_
       | prediction of change, even if a prediction of _any_ change would
       | be best.
       | 
       | Here's what actually changed over the 2010s, as I see it.
       | 
       | HARDWARE
       | 
       | - Phones got way better and changed the face of modern human
       | life.
       | 
       | - 3D TVs fizzled.
       | 
       | - VR has fizzled so far.
       | 
       | - AR fizzled.
       | 
       | - CPUs improved, but more slowly.
       | 
       | - HDDs improved, but more slowly.
       | 
       | - SSDs got cheap.
       | 
       | - Displays got way cheaper.
       | 
       | - Cars got better infotainment systems and other features, but
       | never drove themselves.
       | 
       | - Wireless power didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Mesh networks didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Ultra cheap RFID didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Robots didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Telerobots didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Drone delivery didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Flexible electronics didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Nanotechnology didn't really happen.
       | 
       | - Graphene didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Ubiquitous computing didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Non-silicon based solar didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Silicon solar costs plummeted and installations went
       | gangbusters.
       | 
       | - Wearable electronics didn't happen, except for smart watches.
       | 
       | - eReaders grew.
       | 
       | - FPGAs never took off.
       | 
       | - Chips are still mostly silicon.
       | 
       | - The top CPU makers are still Intel and AMD.
       | 
       | - The top GPU makers are still NVIDIA and AMD.
       | 
       | - The top video game console makers are still Nintendo, Sony,
       | Microsoft.
       | 
       | - Home internet remained mostly cable, not fiber.
       | 
       | - Computers remained x86, phones remained ARM.
       | 
       | SOFTWARE
       | 
       | - The dominant search engine is still Google.
       | 
       | - The dominant computer operating systems are still Windows and
       | Mac OS.
       | 
       | - The dominant phone operating systems are still Android and iOS.
       | 
       | - The top video streaming site is still YouTube.
       | 
       | - The top map site is still Google Maps.
       | 
       | - The dominant office software is still Microsoft Office.
       | 
       | - The dominant social network is still Facebook.
       | 
       | - The top online retailer is still Amazon.
       | 
       | - The top cloud provider is still AWS.
       | 
       | - Internet Explorer died, and Chrome grew in share.
       | 
       | - Websites are lot better and slicker.
       | 
       | - Phone apps got way, way better.
       | 
       | - Cryptocurrencies didn't take off.
       | 
       | - MMOs didn't take off.
       | 
       | - Web anonymization didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Web identity didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Malware still exists.
       | 
       | - Spam still exists.
       | 
       | - Lag still exists.
       | 
       | - Functional programming didn't take off.
       | 
       | - Telepresence didn't take off.
       | 
       | - Mass outsourcing of software jobs didn't happen.
       | 
       | - Linux didn't take off.
       | 
       | - Prediction markets didn't happen
       | 
       | - Dynamic pricing didn't really happen.
       | 
       | - Micropayments didn't really happen.
       | 
       | - Most of what was growing in 2010 continued to grow, most of
       | what was shrinking in 2010 continued to shrink.
       | 
       | Some things changed, but most stayed on trend.
        
         | maskil wrote:
         | Cryptocurrencies didn't take off? Does Bitcoin reaching 60k
         | from nothing not count as taking off?
        
           | Geee wrote:
           | To compare currencies, it's probably better to look at market
           | capitalization and number of owners. The market cap is
           | currently at $0.5T and there are about 100 million Bitcoin
           | owners, which makes it a small currency (comparable to
           | Swedish krona in terms of market cap), but it has certainly
           | "took off".
        
         | TillE wrote:
         | It missed that thread by a few weeks, but I think it's
         | fascinating how little the iPad (announced January 27, 2010)
         | and other tablets have impacted our computing lives, despite a
         | lot of excitement at the time.
         | 
         | They still exist, they're nice, but instead of supplanting
         | anything, they're mainly just tertiary devices owned by a
         | relatively small number of people.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | kuboble wrote:
         | I would add one imo big change that happened between 2010 and
         | 2020.
         | 
         | - subscription model almost completely replaced one-time
         | purchase model for software.
        
         | mynameismon wrote:
         | > _- Ubiquitous mobile internet integrated into even very
         | trivial consumer goods_
         | 
         | Surely, surely this has to be among the predictions which came
         | true, or largely so. Even toothbrushes have Wi-Fi!
        
         | pamelafox wrote:
         | I think functional programming has a larger presence in
         | JavaScript/frontend now, given ES6 APIs like forEach/map and
         | interfaces like higher-order components in React. I notice much
         | more FP in modern frontend docs, like CodeMirror 6, Lit web
         | elements. So, we're not all using Haskell, but its certainly
         | benefited my programming to have a better understanding of FP
         | concepts.
        
       | the_only_law wrote:
       | And this was the nail in the coffin for me. I've never seen so
       | much delusion.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | jedberg wrote:
       | It would be cool to link back to the comment so I can see the
       | context the prediction was made in.
        
         | jason-phillips wrote:
         | > It would be cool to link back to the comment
         | 
         | Just click the commenter
        
           | jedberg wrote:
           | I think they just deployed that, because I don't think that
           | worked an hour ago.
        
             | lucb1e wrote:
             | Correct: https://github.com/hnpredictions/hnpredictions.git
             | hub.io/com...
             | 
             | "added link to original post" committed ~1h before your
             | reply
        
         | julienreszka wrote:
         | till OP fixes this you can search the comments here:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/
        
           | BbzzbB wrote:
           | Till GP finds the hidden and limited search API (I know it
           | exists and I'm struggling to find it) he can search the
           | comments here:
           | 
           | https://hn.algolia.com
           | 
           | Edit: I was thinking of news.ycombinator/from?site=X, but I
           | realize I'm not even sure it can search comments.
        
             | jedberg wrote:
             | I know I could search them, but I'm way too lazy to
             | copy/paste it somewhere else. Especially on a Sunday
             | morning.
        
         | mrweasel wrote:
         | I predict it will be a feature in the next release.
        
           | loceng wrote:
           | I predict you're correct.
        
       | vasili111 wrote:
       | It will be good to be able to se the link to original post at HN.
        
       | c3534l wrote:
       | These are all really atrocious predictions, and the newest ones
       | don't really seem any less stupid than those whose time has
       | already come to pass. People also seem to have a weird inability
       | to construct grammatically correct sentences that start with the
       | phrase "I predict."
        
       | closedloop129 wrote:
       | It would be nice if users could mark predictions as true.
       | 
       | I would love to see how the predictions trade on prediction
       | markets like https://manifold.markets/. Could you automatically
       | create an entry for every prediction?
        
       | eterm wrote:
       | If it's not a top level comment it ought to show the context of
       | the parent comment.
        
       | BbzzbB wrote:
       | I guess it's just a little fun site, would've been nice however
       | to have a voting system in random scrolling to provide some
       | highlights (while keeping predictions unvotable in the ranking to
       | avoid typical crowding).
       | 
       | >I predict that the ready supply of instant gratification will be
       | as or more harmful than fast food and the obesity epidemic.
       | 
       | Yet to be widely acknowledged and acted on, but sure seems
       | lsd5you was ahead of the curve on this in 2010.
        
         | drewtato wrote:
         | People have been worried about this since TV was invented.
        
           | BbzzbB wrote:
           | And we went from 30 minute TV shows on global/national/local
           | channels to 30 seconds clips on finely tuned personal feeds
           | with granular data from billions of users optimizing for
           | watchtime.
           | 
           | I know it's a fear as old as books, but it's hard to ignore
           | the different paradigm that the Internet brought to the
           | table.
        
           | Amezarak wrote:
           | It seems evident to me that they were right to worry so, the
           | TV appears to have been a net negative.
        
         | darkerside wrote:
         | I like this feature idea
        
       | danielunited wrote:
       | This turned out correct: https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=1149
       | 
       | The rest I've seen are useless since they're from 2020 or further
        
         | PebblesRox wrote:
         | The whole thread is an interesting read. I'm not used to
         | hearing people talk about bitcoins plural!
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1942708
        
         | lucb1e wrote:
         | saving people a click / posterity when this goes down
         | 
         | > I predict we'll be hearing more and more about bitcoins over
         | the next year or so as the process accelerates. --hugh3, 2010
        
       | throwawaymaths wrote:
       | Would be nice to include explicit predictions that don't start
       | with "I predict" from the prediction threads.
        
       | 0x_rs wrote:
       | _I predict disappointment._ -untog (2012)
       | 
       | I don't even need context. Always applicable.
       | 
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=3337
       | 
       | EDIT: this is a fun one: _I predict lots of people will make
       | predictions, but we 'll never go back to check and see if they
       | were right._ -- the reckoning has come, tlrobinson!
       | 
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=247
        
         | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
         | >> I predict that every time the favicon changes, the consensus
         | will be that the change is bad
         | 
         | https://hnpredictions.github.io/
         | 
         | Beautiful really:>
        
           | SubiculumCode wrote:
           | I predict the internet will soon go spectacularly supernova
           | and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.
           | 
           | -blazepower (2016)
        
       | jostmey wrote:
       | I remember mine. Pandemics and mass shootings targeting rich
       | people. 1 for 2
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jostmey&next=2229115...
        
         | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
         | Technically, that did not really happen yet ( although I agree
         | with that prediction as likely ). We had one instance of mass
         | shooting in an affluent Chicago suburb, but there is no
         | indication it was done to 'target rich people'.
         | 
         | I am typing all this as I recall that I saw 'eat the rich' meme
         | on Imgur the past few months semi-consitently ( to be fair
         | though; Imgur has become oddly politicized as a platform ).
        
           | ClassyJacket wrote:
           | You're agreeing with them. They said they got 1 of 2 right -
           | the pandemic
        
             | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
             | Thank you for that. I think I need to slow down a little
             | when reading.
        
       | ClassyJacket wrote:
       | I came across a quote from myself on the third refresh!!
       | 
       | Any chance you could add links to the original comment? I'd like
       | to see what I was talking about in 2017. From the quote:
       | 
       | "I predict it's abandoned within the year"
       | 
       | I was almost certainly talking about a Google product, but I
       | can't remember what. I thought it was Stadia, but apparently that
       | was announced the year after.
        
         | posix86 wrote:
         | you can? click on the quote author
        
           | ClassyJacket wrote:
           | ah thankyou
        
       | yewenjie wrote:
       | This is really cool but the links on the page are hard to tap on
       | mobile.
        
       | sacrosanct wrote:
       | Some other fun phrases to look for on ageing HN comments:
       | 
       | 'If I was president I would'
       | 
       | 'You're not wrong, but'
       | 
       | 'My point is that'
       | 
       | 'The thing is'
       | 
       | 'Google should'
       | 
       | 'Basically what I'm saying is'
       | 
       | 'The only caveat is'
       | 
       | 'Buyer beware'
       | 
       | 'Without sounding like'
       | 
       | 'The truth is'
       | 
       | 'In all honesty'
       | 
       | 'As a matter of fact'
        
         | euroderf wrote:
         | The phrase "The fact of the matter is..." is only ever used
         | dishonestly. If I had a talk show, any guest who used this
         | phrase would immediately have his/her mic cut and out the door
         | they go.
        
       | app4soft wrote:
       | > _I predict the predictions will remain very dire until December
       | 2020._
       | 
       |  _-RickJWagner (2020)_ [0,1]
       | 
       | [0] https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=1233
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22279436
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | > _I predict youll learn that lesson soon._
         | 
         |  _-tempsy (2019)_ [0,1]
         | 
         | [0] https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=2231
         | 
         | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21902942
        
         | judge2020 wrote:
         | > We still don't know when it will be safe for freelancers and
         | small companies to drop IE 7 and other dinosaurs. But I predict
         | that day will come much sooner thanks to Google.
         | 
         | - -jarrett (2011)[0,1]
         | 
         | 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2675741
         | 
         | 1: https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=189
        
       | dcow wrote:
       | If the prediction sentence contains a url, the sentence ends at
       | the first `.` in the url. For example:
       | 
       | > I predict that some cities will eventually desire persistent
       | aerial surveillance systems like http://www.
       | 
       | The full sentence from HN is:
       | 
       | > I predict that some cities will eventually desire persistent
       | aerial surveillance systems like
       | http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_162772/ARGUS-IS for many
       | reasons, this being one.
        
       | pvaldes wrote:
       | I augur that the query will be expanded soon with a list of
       | synonyms. I bet would probably add more interesting results
        
       | Kuinox wrote:
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=3550
       | 
       | > I predict that touch interfaces in cars like this is a fad that
       | will pass and people will look back on it as an embarrassment
       | 
       | Hilarous.
        
         | pmontra wrote:
         | For the driver a touchscreens is dangerous. For passengers or
         | for configuration is OK.
         | 
         | I got the radio controls on my steering wheel. I would be dead
         | or I won't be using the radio if they were on a touchscreen.
         | Closing a phone call is on the touchscreen and I'd like to be
         | able to do it from the steering wheel. The less the eyes leave
         | the road the better.
        
         | karaterobot wrote:
         | I dunno, it seems like the tide is turning a bit. Mazda and BMW
         | both say they're going to cool it with touch screens, and I
         | assume others have too. This might be related to the chip
         | shortage, but then again I've seen a bunch of articles about
         | how much people hate this technology in cars. The original
         | prediction doesn't include a timeline, I note. Maybe this is
         | wishful thinking on my part?
        
       | chmod775 wrote:
       | Needs some work because it doesn't seem to extract the whole
       | sentence.
       | 
       | Original: "The place where I predict we'll disagree is whether to
       | evacuate the machine's workloads prior to servicing."
       | 
       | What was shown: "I predict we'll disagree is whether to evacuate
       | the machine's workloads prior to servicing."
       | 
       | Which is gibberish if you omit the beginning.
       | 
       | Original comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22322241
        
       | deificx wrote:
       | "I predict the 2020s will be strikingly similar to the 2010s."
       | 
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=4346
       | 
       | I guess it's hard to predict, especially about the future.
        
         | fezfight wrote:
         | With such a vague statement, you could easily swing it either
         | way. To me, it looks basically identical. What's different for
         | you?
        
           | deificx wrote:
           | The obvious one to me was how COVID came in 2020 and put the
           | world into quarantine making and actual change in how people
           | work remotely. The technology was there in the 2010s, but
           | something external changed our usage. Of course, it looks
           | like it is trending backwards again with companies forcing
           | workers back to the office, at least partially.
           | 
           | Politics across the globe seems more insane than ever. Maybe
           | I wasn't paying attention 10 years ago.
        
             | fezfight wrote:
             | Or maybe I'm not paying enough attention to right now. Good
             | points though, thanks.
        
             | pmontra wrote:
             | Maybe you were not paying attention but it doesn't matter:
             | the world did change a lot with Covid and especially with
             | the war in Ukraine, at least in Europe. It's definitely
             | different than up to early 2020.
        
       | joshka wrote:
       | Appropriate:                   I predict that this HN thread will
       | lead hundreds of folks to tell stories of confirmation bias.
       | 
       | -themodelplumber (2018) https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=620
        
       | drewtato wrote:
       | > I predict that within 2 years the iPhone OS will allow you to
       | run unapproved apps provided you click through enough, "Hey,
       | we're warning you! Don't come crying to us when you manage to
       | blow up your dock connector", messages.
       | 
       | -DannoHung (2010)
       | 
       | I'm so sorry Danno. We're still waiting.
       | 
       | > I predict within 2 years no one will even hear about an Nvidia
       | GPU in an Intel-based laptop (unless we're talking $2000+
       | machines - maybe).
       | 
       | -higherpurpose (2015)
       | 
       | (this is probably about AMD CPUs?) Looks like it's going to be
       | wrong for many more years.
       | 
       | > I predict the sun will run out of steam and we are all gonna
       | die.
       | 
       | -the-dude (2020)
       | 
       | I dunno about that, sun looks fine to me!
       | 
       | footnote: sorry for adding dupes to your data
        
         | drewtato wrote:
         | Found another one:
         | 
         | > I predict we will still be using SMS in 10 years.
         | 
         | -malandrew (2012)
         | 
         | Yep. But mostly in the US when cross-OS or automated.
        
         | klyrs wrote:
         | >> I predict the sun will run out of steam and we are all gonna
         | die.
         | 
         | > -the-dude (2020)
         | 
         | > I dunno about that, sun looks fine to me!
         | 
         | I'd call that one half-right. The sun is almost certainly
         | devoid of all gas-phase H2O. Well, maybe a quarter-right,
         | because it didn't "run out" of something it didn't have.
        
         | Traubenfuchs wrote:
         | > I'm so sorry Danno. We're still waiting.
         | 
         | Yeah? I thought this exists:
         | 
         | https://sideloadly.io/
        
         | Kelteseth wrote:
         | > I'm so sorry Danno. We're still waiting.
         | 
         | How long is the transition phase for Apple until EU users will
         | be allowed to install any software on iOS?
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32163704
         | 
         | Edit:
         | 
         | > After being signed by the President of the European
         | Parliament and the President of the Council, it will be
         | published in the Official Journal of the European Union and
         | will start to apply six months later.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | > I predict the sun will run out of steam and we are all gonna
         | die.
         | 
         | To be fair, all of us are indeed going to live a normalish
         | distribution of lifespans and the sun is too.
        
         | tehlike wrote:
         | With dma, apple allowing unapproved apps will probably come
         | true.
        
         | tim-- wrote:
         | > every app available for the MacLet (iPad/tablet) will be
         | officially available for the MacBook
         | 
         | It appears this has come to pass.
         | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=3625
        
       | jenscow wrote:
       | I predict the preparation script for hnpredictions will soon have
       | an exclusion for this topic.
        
       | avian wrote:
       | > No Investment Advice
       | 
       | Anyone else surprised by the caliber of the legal disclaimer on
       | the site? I can't decide if that's part of the joke or if this is
       | a serious result of the author consulting a lawyer and coming up
       | with this. Maybe I should be more concerned that someone might
       | take some random sentence I wrote out of context and use it as
       | investment advice*
       | 
       | * This comment is not an investment advice
        
         | SubiculumCode wrote:
         | that should be my tag to every post.
        
       | bilekas wrote:
       | > This site uses "smartest" and "most pedantic" interchangeably.
       | 
       | Couldn't have it any other way for HN!
        
       | skywal_l wrote:
       | "I predict it is doomed, and before long even you will abandon
       | it. "
       | 
       | Talking about HN to jacquesm.
       | 
       | I laughed.
        
       | sainib wrote:
       | Good but needs more work. you need to contextualize using the
       | original response and original post. I can see the value of this
       | though. On similar lines, you could probably organize all
       | software / product / business ideas people mention in comments
       | also. Good luck.
        
         | nkozyra wrote:
         | Yeah, simply finding "I predict" leads to a lot of non-
         | predictions, as it's often used as a colloquial substitute for
         | "I believe" or "I anticipate."
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tinco wrote:
       | What the heck petercooper, first link I got on this site:
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=3007 and he predicts an oil
       | crash in the next year which then happens spectacularly. I hope
       | he put some money on that and not just some HN karma.
        
       | joshka wrote:
       | Feature request - one click copy of the quote, attribution and
       | link?
       | 
       | E.g.:                  I predict blah        -- foobar in 2022
       | 
       | (https://news.ycombinator.com/... via
       | https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=xxx)
        
       | lucb1e wrote:
       | Would be nice to be able to select by things like year
       | (predictions made in 2022 are not so interesting yet).
       | 
       | Found this one from 2007: https://hnpredictions.github.io/?p=2849
       | "I predict because all major businesses will be interacting
       | through Facebook, a new form of currency will begin to emerge."
       | --jimream. Sounds like a popular prediction at the time, given
       | wechat. Although, were wechat payments a thing then already?
        
       | bozhark wrote:
       | I predict the US will switch to the metric system and the entire
       | world will switch to a 13 month calendar, in 100 years.
        
       | SalimoS wrote:
       | Im really having hard time reading the prediction
       | 
       | (By the way is there a way to block any custom font/use the
       | system default in safari for iOS)
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-14 23:01 UTC)